Through the use of theater games, students can expand their learning of architecture by reinforcing imagery through an additional medium. In each of the exercises, students will be asked to use their architectural three-dimension models or flat patterns as inspiration. In some cases, the students may actually make larger drawings on brown paper, using a grid system to transfer the pattern.
Through theater games, students will:
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1. Develop improvisational skills
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2. Respond on the intuitive level
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3. Enhance powers of observation
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4. Expand their creativity
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5. Allow for a visual link between the two mediums.
A number of theater games can be utilized. These include:
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Living sculptures. The first student strikes a pose and each additional student must add on, touching former student, to create a living structure, conscious of the placement of limbs, torso and head. Remaining students analyze living sculpture in terms of line, form, texture, shape, solid and space. Students will then use their bodies to create shapes that represent elements of a village—a church, town hall, bridge, etc. (Example, two people can curve and link together to create a bridge.)
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Human columns. Students will be assigned either a Doric, Corinthian or Ionic column. They will first be asked to walk in the manner of the column, wear appropriate expression and “jockey for position” with other types columns for various buildings, explaining why they are best suited for the job at such facilities as banks, prisons, offices, etc.
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Neutral Party. Students act in pairs with the first maintaining a neutral posture. The second student enters the “room” designed by each student and starts a dialogue appropriate to the setting at which point the neutral person enters the improvisation. References must be made to the building or component as a setting which actually becomes like a third character. For example, if the student s architectural component is a doorway, who may or may not have entered the door previously might be a part of the dialogue. Eventually the “neutral” party must find a logical reason to “leave” the scene and another person enters with the second student now assuming the neutral posture.
